Aiden’s reunion with Karen was the furthest it could have been from his imagination. To say it didn’t play out the way he had expected would be the understatement of the year.He hadn’t expected her to welcome him with open arms, admittedly, but he had thought he’d find her scared and confused, not angry beyond comprehension.Indeed the moment he stepped into the desolate cabin in which she had been kept captive, his beautiful blonde mate looked at him, with murder in her eyes.That was not a what-kind-of-mess-did-you-get-me-into kind of glare… it was much more intense, and held so much more heat to it.He would have startled back from it had he been any lesser wolf, but he wasn’t, and thus he didn’t.He tried to shrug it off as he breathed out a few relieved words, “You’re okay. Oh god, I’m so glad you’re okay.”She didn’t utter a word in response, even as he went to free he

Aiden called his bodyguard. Karen didn’t even know he had one. And where the fuck was this bodyguard of his when he had been fighting for his life?Stop worrying about him, she told herself inwardly. He broke your trust. He didn’t believe in you.He also protected you with his life, her inner slut purred. And good god did he look good doing that.Karen had to shake her head to get it out of the gutter.Although she could admit that he did look good, that didn’t necessarily mean she was attracted to him, did it?“Are you okay?” He asked her for what seemed like the tenth time since he had ended the fight.From where he was standing, right next to the driver’s door, his privates well covered, he was titling his head in a quizzical manner.“Why wouldn’t I be?” She retorted, rolling her eyes.She had always been a little bit squeamish, and had never tolerated violence – which was a bit ir

“Karen,” she heard Aiden call her name for what felt like the umpteenth time when it was only the fourth, as he knocked on the door of the room she had been given.She stubbornly and quite childishly ignored him… until he barged in, saying, “Ready or not, I’m coming in. You’re worrying me.”She could only roll her eyes at his behavior.“Typical alpha male, I suppose?” She taunted.“I am an alpha,” he told her in a detached tone, seemingly not liking her attitude.Well, tough!“Yeah, yeah,” she carried on taunting him, challenging him, in an attempt to get a rise out of him so she could blow out at him. “So you say, Aiden.”“I was born to lead,” he said in a resolute tone, “and you were born to be mine.”“Says who?” She raised an eyebrow.“Fate. Fate brought us together…”“Do you even

Jonathan, Aiden’s dad, with the help of his mate, sent a missive to all the US packs’ alphas. There was a ball of power, as Aiden explained to Karen, that served to transmit the message – both in image and sound.

“Karen,” he had the nerve to call after her while she ran out of the palace, only to find herself in the garden, where there were even more people.She didn’t bother to stop and didn’t care to turn around.